At 11:30 AM on Monday a motorcyclist is trying to make a scheduled lab at Utah State University. A BMW pulls out of a school parking lot, apparently not seeing the approaching motorcycle. The motorcyclist, Brandon Wright, drops his bike to the pavement, skids a good way, but crashes into the BMW.
It’s hard to explain how Wright slides underneath the car, but that’s what happens. Moreover, the twisted cycle leaks fuel, then catches fire. A random videographer, Chris Garff, enters the picture right about at this frame, and shoots a few minutes of footage that capture what our corporeal world was created for.
It’s a world where good Samaritans pitch in and perform a feat of Superman-like courage and some shoe-string quick thinking. No time to hesitate as the flames leap higher and higher. A few more than six heroes heave (tilt) the BMW up on its side, while a construction worker, wearing a hardhat and a lime green T-shirt, drags an injured Brandon Wright by the leg, to the safety of open air.
The BMW weighs 4,000 pounds, so I estimate each participant in the rescue was responsible for around six or seven hundred pounds of kinetic metal heaving, if you run the division. It’s been said, in that defining moment of truth, where the miracle has to happen or it’s all over with, individuals will find a reservoir of supernatural strength.
You’ve seen Chris Garff’s viral video on YouTube, so you know the authenticity of this ‘reservoir of supernatural strength’ (just mentioned) is as real as earth, wind, and fire (especially fire). Furthermore, if you are prone to believe in miracles, then you mustn’t fail to admit that this is a miracle. A rereading of the Venerable Bede is in order.
Many of the heroes have been identified in the news; the construction worker doesn’t seem to be one of them. Abbass Sharif, 28, a doctoral candidate from Lebanon, was amongst these fast thinking heroes. Abbas figured it was a 100 percent chance that Mr. Wright would perish in the conflagration, but he was only taking a 20 percent risk with his own life.
Another person who did the BMW toting was James Odei, 35, a statistics major from Ghana working on his doctorate. “All I wanted to do was grab that car and raise it.” There must have been several others, but they were not identified in the half dozen news reports I’ve read. The lime-green-T-shirted-hardhat-construction-worker is the biggest hero of all! He actually saved Brandon Wright’s life.
No one is saying the accident is his fault. That’s yet to be determined. I just fear, with Garff’s video going viral, an irrational public will rush to judgment, and blame Johnson without knowing the particulars of the crash. An accident can happen very easily. But an exact determination of what transpired is rare. Uncertainty, tragedy, and miracle all figures into this incident in Logan, Utah.
